“It’s one of those things you sort of say something and you didn’t realize people would jump on it,” the 28-year-old says. “So I’ve kind of decided I’m going to be a good little hunk and shut up.”

Originally Harington said it was “demeaning” for him to be “always be put on a pedestal as a hunk.” “It really is, and it’s in the same way as it is for women. When an actor is seen only for her physical beauty, it can be quite offensive,” he told Page Six.

He continued, “Well, it’s not just men that can be inappropriate sexually; women can be as well. I’m in a successful TV show in a kind of leading-man way and it can sometimes feel like your art is being put to one side for your sex appeal. And I don’t like that. In this position you get asked a lot, ‘Do you like being a heartthrob? Do you like being a hunk?’ Well, my answer is, ‘That’s not what I got into it for.'”

The media was quick to jump on Harington’s comments, with people like The Guardian’s Peter Ormerod writing, “Kit … comes across like those who complain about the burden of having too much money or too many houses.”